Description of British Library, Add MS 15423: Torah (תורה) contributor Ilana Tahan cataloger Agata Paluch The Polonsky Foundation British Library These images and the content of British Library Add MS 15423: Torah (תורה) are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/. To the extent possible under law, British Library has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about British Library Add MS 15423: Torah (תורה). This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode. The Reverand Theodore Williams of Hendon, (1824): his motto 'Deus alit me' above his armorial shield of a fess, 3 crescents, 3 birds, and a bird on top of the shield (upper cover), and the monogram 'T.W.' and the motto (lower cover). Prince Augustus Frederick (b. 1773, d. 1843), duke of Sussex: his bookplate ([i recto]); his sale, January 18, 1844, lot 365; purchased by Thorpe. Thomas Thorpe: purchased by him for £25 4s: annotated sale catalogue in the History and Classics Department. Manuscript description based on Margoliouth, G.: Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1965. United Kingdom London British Library Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project Add MS 15423 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_15423 https://www.bl.uk/hebrew-manuscripts The Pentatuech, with vowel-points and accents. Hebrew Torah (תורה) 1r Genesis 35v Exodus 65v Leviticus 87r Numbers 117r Deuteronomy

Parchment

 143 folios; 143 folios Columns: 1; ruled lines: 27; written lines: 27; Uniform layout. Visible complete ruling. Last line written outside ruling. Graphic fillers at the end of the lines. Flesh side and hair side distinguishable. Quires start with flesh side. Italian semi-cursive script, punctuated, of the 15th century. Yitsḥaḳ ben ῾Ovadyah ben Daṿidof Forli (Gaio di Servadio), active in Florence 1441- approximately 1470.

Post-1600. Black leather, tooled, with the arms and motto of Theodore Williams on the upper and lower covers. Spine: 'Pentateuch. Hebraice. Mus. Brit. Jure Emptionis. 15,423. Plut.'

Between 1441 and 1467

Florence, Italy Acquisition: Purchased by the British Museum through Thomas Rodd the younger (b. 1796, d. 1849): inscribed 'purchased of Thos. Rodd, 18 January 1845': [i recto]; one of six Hebrew manuscripts acquired from the Duke of Sussex.